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My struggle with getting fit

Back when I did my monthly new years resolutions (read about it here) I decided to once again dedicate a month to trying to get the hang of working out. I think like most people getting healthy and losing weight is one of those new years resolutions that just keeps getting pushed forward to the next year. This year was no different. My thought was a few months of working out and then quitting was still better than nothing so what could it hurt. Plus this might be the year that is actually sticks!

Unfortunately that was not the case. I even scheduled this post back at the end of February hoping that having to do a post on the topic would be another good motivator. If I didn’t get fit or at least make some progress I would be short a post for that month. So I was short a post that month and I pushed this post back again, and again.

Something went very differently though last month.
I randomly decided to put my money where my mouth is and I bought a fitness tracker. My thought was if I spent a chunk of money the excessively frugal part of me would not let that be a wasted purchase. Turns out I was right!

I have had it for a month and a half so far and in that short time I have got up to 9k steps a day average (I started at 3k) and I have lost 9 pounds! So crunching the numbers so far that is about $17 per pound, and it is only getting cheaper the longer I go! So what magic is in one of these fitness trackers to get crazy results?

NONE! I did that!
Well… I realized I am highly motivated by graphs, and the fitness tracker’s app gives SO MANY GRAPHS!
I know, I am a nerd.

But really the only magic or edge that having a fitness tacker has going for it is accountability. It tracks everything so I can’t look back at last month and wonder why I didn’t lose any weight after working out so much, because the hard numbers are right there. Turns out “So much” was actually only once a week and that pint of ice cream I polished off kind of undid all of it…

I can’t argue with the data. Having data gives you a place to improve from. The first few days of tracking I tried to not do anything differently so I would have the data on what my normal day looked like. The data told me told me I eat too much and don’t move enough. So I decreased my food by a small yet easily doable amount and upped my step goal by 500 steps. Then I did that again the next week. Those little tweaks were easy to track and after a month and a half I am where I am today, slightly lighter and feeling fit!

Here are my top 3 things I do in my journey to getting more fit!

1. Walking More

Something is better than nothing and a whole lot of a little something is A WHOLE LOT!
Fitting in my daily steps has done wonders for all of my fitness goals. Larry and I go on a walk every night for about an hour. It clears my head and gives us time to talk about whatever we feel like talking about. I also have a workaholic problem that walking has solved. I would try to take me time or relax and would end up frustrated and feeling guilty over the wasted time. Our nightly walks calm my anxiety of the day and also make me feel like I am accomplishing something because I have to get my steps in!

But what about nights when I would have to walk alone?
On nights when Larry isn’t at home I have started the strange habit of pacing my apartment while simultaneously doing other things. That guilt of wasting time from earlier, it is solved with this plan times 10! I have gotten really good at doing all sorts of crazy things while “doing laps” in my little apartment.
Like…
Reading, playing video games, and my favorite, folding clothes while watching Netflix!
It is quite the funny thing to watch.

2. Eating Less

I have been calorie counting, only not really. I stuck to it for a few weeks to find my problem areas where I really needed to watch my portion size. I found out I doctor up my coffee far too generously and I am terrible at eyeballing it, so I measure it out each morning now. I also learned that I pile as much as I possibly can on my dinner plate and eat way more than my tummy can take. So I pile on healthier things, or stuff that takes up a lot of space that won’t fill me up. That overly full feeling is no longer the norm for me and I feel so much better.

I also started eating a lot less candy, but the candy I do eat I enjoy so much more! Now that I know my eating issues I am a lot more loose about tracking my food because I have fixed the major problem areas. I focus more now on being aware of what I am eating and how much instead of the numbers that come up in the calorie tracker.

well and this…

All of the candy and sweet stuff in the apartment go in this tin, guarded by the weights. In order to get to candy we have to do a set number of reps with the weights. This has been going amazingly well because if one of us has a sweet tooth then it reminds the other to do the weights also. I have also been too lazy on multiple occasions to do the weights. It stopped me from eating candy I found out later I wasn’t actually craving.

3. Working Out – aka – Screaming at the man on the work out video

Larry have been doing the Ab Ripper workout that is part of P90x every Monday and Friday. We like it because it is only 15 minutes, requires no equipment, is all done sitting, and causes us great amounts of ab pain for the next 2 days. So that means it’s working right?

My favorite part of the workout is yelling at the cocky guy walking you through the workout. He isn’t even doing the work out with you the whole time! I seriously hate this guy, but I love hating him! We have done the work out so many times now that we basically have it memorized and don’t miss a beat in mocking the ab ripper guy. Here are a few of our favorite phases:

“Let’s climb our legs.”

“Their working hard, I know you are!”

“Jason he’s the ripped king”
(note: I also hate Jason… and Adam, because “He’s a hotshot” Audra is the only one you can trust.)

“We’re half way done. The party’s almost over.”

We are starting slow when it comes to working out and really this is only adds up to 30 minutes a week other than walking. Once we really get this habit down we will slowly start to add more work outs, but for now this is perfect for us.

I also am not focusing on the end goal weight. That isn’t going to help at all in making this a lifetime change. I don’t want to work hard to get to my goal only to lose my drive and feel like crud again. I want to feel great forever not just until I reach my goal weight. So everyday I try to do something (ANYTHING) to get me moving and feeling fit!

What is your favorite thing to do to get moving?

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I love this post! It is so relatable. To answer the question, I like to walk places instead of driving when possible. Recently I had friends visiting from out of state and made them walk telegraph hill up to coit tower! It is so fun for me, but they were dieing. I realized that I walk more than most people just because I live in the Bay Area, where you sort of have to.